So, you’re off out, and you want to see whether you need to either take an umbrella, don your shorts or dig out your snow boots. Do you wait for the local weatherman to be the bearer of (mostly) bad news? NO! You whip out your smartphone and consult your trusty weather app in order to readily plan ahead. Isn’t the future great?
But which weather apps can you trust? Who provides the most accurate service? And which provider gives you a rolling Geography lesson every time you log in? Here to answer those (and many more) questions, then, is our list of the best weather apps around.
“Weather for life”, promise the ambitiously-titled AccuWeather. A grand claim, perhaps, but who doesn’t want longevity when deciding upon a trustworthy weather app? A free and award-winning platform, its features include a minute-by-minute precipitation forecast for the next two hours, funky interactive elements, and an intriguing function called AccUcast, where “you become part of the forecast by sharing your weather observations to help people in your community stay safe from hazardous weather and road conditions.” Good to see AccuWeather encouraging us to be kind to our fellow man, isn’t it?
Particularly good for the UK, the trusty BBC’s weather app is one of the most accessible and accurate services around. Providing forecasts for hundreds of international locations, it permits you to add favourites, use your current location, or search for a specific place. Once you’ve accomplished that, you’re then rewarded with a detailed forecast for the next 48 hours – providing that the place you’re searching for is in the UK (anywhere else is also covered, albeit with 3-hourly forecast). There are also Met Office warnings, Sunrise/Sunset times, and UV, Pollen and Pollution info for the UK. Plus, it’s free. Let’s just stop here, shall we?
Actually, let’s not: a strong variation is key to these listicles, after all. So here is Yahoo’s fine attempt at a weather app, which differentiates from the more cloud/sunshine-based, retro imagery of the BBC’s app by integrating stunning photos from major locations to match its current weather. Get a shot of the NYC skyline mid-drizzle, if you so please. It’s all part of an “immersive experience”, which apparently makes “checking and sharing the weather inspiring and entertaining.” It’s certainly worth a look if those statements actually come true, mind.
Another pretty app, Weather + is an ‘international travel weather calculator’ that gives full-screen video loops for all weather conditions to match whatever the situation is in your chosen location. So, if there’s a blizzard in Slough, then Weather + will not only tell you, but it’ll visualise it via the means of a snowy, Instagram-esque backdrop. Offering the usual weather predictions for the next few hours for the week ahead, it also offer time details on each of your locations so you can see how many hours ahead or behind somewhere is.
Not actually telling you what the weather is like underground (come on now, that would just be silly), the title of this app actually refers to the hyper-local weather data that is provided through its 100,000+ personal weather stations (manned, rather incredibly, by local enthusiasts). Resplendent in its slick design, interactive map and oodles and oodles of data on all sorts of things, this really is an app for all you serious weather fans out there.
Our first paid app on this list, Home and Dry focuses primarily on outbreaks of rain in the UK, Ireland and Europe. Finding out when that infernal downpour outside is going to stop is sometimes crucial to your day’s plans, so Home and Dry aim to provide you with an accurate answer of when and how long it will rain for in your locale. The radar automatically picks up on your location, so there’s no need to search. None at all. It’s perhaps a bit of a niche concern in the summer months (pfft, British summer), but it could be a great help for the rest of the year round.
For those of you continually concerned about what temperature it currently is in a certain place, Celsius Free displays the information you crave on your Home Screen, Notification Centre and Lock Screen. With data from all over the world, you can look up and set the temperature of your desired location to always be on show on your smartphone: if you’ve a holiday coming up somewhere nice, for example, then you can get yourself through the working week by having your destination’s hot hot hot temperature displayed whenever you unlock your phone. You can also upgrade to a full service, which offers radar maps, 10-days forecasts and unlimited cities.
Il pleut sur la plage! The French entry to our list comes in the form of Météo Consult’s fully-functional app, which has a particular expertise in providing marine weather forecasts. Out on your boat and want to see if you should take warning from that red sky in the morning? Too confused by the BBC’s inimitable-yet-indecipherable shipping forecast? Or do you just want up-to-date forecasts on how rough the sea is going to be whilst you float on the great blue ocean? Then Météo Marine est pour vous!
Metrological nerds, this one’s for you: WunderStation’s tagline is “more data than you ever asked for”, which does a pretty fine job of summarising what it is they actually provide with their app. With the provision of “rapid-fire current conditions, forecasts and historical weather data”, it uses the aforementioned Weather Underground’s 100,000-strong network of personal weather stations to compile mountains and mountains of data for you to scratch your head over.
And so let’s end this list with a thing of beauty: Beautiful Weather, to be exact. Offering precise daily forecasts and intuitive displays (including a panorama view and an interactive globe), this weather app presents itself in a rather pleasant fashion, with animations of a countryside landscape (featuring sheep, cows and, er, a nice tree) bringing your desired forecast to life.
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